Job vacancies in the BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) sector in India broke all records as the Naukri Jobspeak Index for Banking/Finance/Broking reached an all-time high of 4,555 in March 2023 compared to 3,138 in March 2022, a year-on-year increase of 45%.

The 45% growth was fuelled by the expansion of digital banking services. The promising aspect of this growth is its geographical spread where vacancies in cities as diverse as Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Kolkata increased over the year by 145%, 72%, and 49% respectively.

New jobs created in the insurance sector recorded 108% growth in March 2023 compared to March 2022, primarily driven by jobs related to selling insurance products.

Beyond BFSI, the hiring landscape in India displayed cautious optimism where the Naukri JobSpeak Index, country's premier job index derived from more than a million monthly job openings, stood at 2,979 in March 2023, up 5% over last year and flat against last month.

The IT sector, on the other hand, saw a downturn in hiring with a decline of 17% in new jobs created compared to March last year. The hiring intent declined across both large IT giants and unicorns, while hiring for early-to-mid stage startups remained stable with respect to the same period last year.

Vacancies for high-demand roles such as big data engineers, DevOps, and software development engineers, which were on a growth path until recent times, have declined in March 2023 by 20%, 9%, and 6%, respectively. However, the demand for emerging roles like machine learning saw an uptick.

New jobs created in other non-tech sectors such as Oil, Real Estate, FMCG, and Hospitality increased by 36%, 31%, 14%, and 7%, respectively, compared to last year's base. However, specific non-tech sectors such as retail, education, and BPO, exhibited cautious hiring sentiment with a 4%, 2%, and 2% decline in hiring activity, respectively.

Naukri noted that non-metro cities continued to act as growth drivers in the white-collar job market. Among non-metro cities, Vadodara leads hiring trends with a 50% growth in new job creation against last year, followed by Ahmedabad, Jaipur, and Kochi with 49%, 29%, and 13% growth in new job creation respectively.

In metro cities, Mumbai and Delhi/NCR observed positive hiring momentum, with 17% and 7% growth in new job creation, respectively, primarily driven by the insurance sector.

Amid broader market uncertainties, the appetite for mid-level professionals saw an increase, registering 14% growth compared to the previous year, following a period of stagnation in recent months. In contrast, hiring activity for entry-level professionals remained unchanged compared to last year.

Pawan Goyal, Chief Business Officer, Naukri.com, said, “The BFSI sector's growth in a cautious job market signals resilience of the Indian economy and the expanding horizons of the white-collar job landscape. Non-metro cities are proving to be the catalysts for change, redefining the employment narrative in India.”

The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly Index representing the state of the Indian job market & hiring activity based on new job listings and job-related searches by recruiters on the CV database on Naukri.com.